{"id":22008,"date":"2024-02-21T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=22008"},"modified":"2024-02-21T11:40:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:40:02","slug":"sen-ossoff-pushing-to-address-federal-financial-aid-delays","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-pushing-to-address-federal-financial-aid-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Pushing to Address Federal Financial Aid Delays\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>This year\u2019s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form opened three months late<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Washington, D.C.<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressing the Biden Administration to address financial aid delays for Georgia students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff joined a group of colleagues&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/02.12.24-Quill-Final-FAFSA-Letter-v2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calling on the Department of Education<\/a>&nbsp;to urgently address operational issues&nbsp;with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form&nbsp;that is impacting millions of students in Georgia and across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/education\/new-fafsa-delay-means-longer-wait-for-financial-info-for-georgia-students\/GHNTLCBUNFD4ZLUAELFOR3X2QQ\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<em>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution&nbsp;<\/em>and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wabe.org\/atlanta-college-bound-students-in-limbo-due-to-fafsa-financial-aid-delays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>WABE<\/em><\/a>, delays with the rollout of the new FAFSA system are preventing many Georgia students from being able to make decisions about their enrollment and are similarly hurting Georgia colleges and universities\u2019 abilities to send accurate financial aid offers to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FAFSA form typically opens on October 1 but didn\u2019t open until December 30, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were pleased to see the recent announcement of the Department\u2019s plans to provide additional resources and support for under-resourced high schools and colleges to assist their students with the FAFSA form, and to deploy federal staff to support aid efforts,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff and the group wrote<\/strong>. \u201cWe urge the Department to distribute these resources and tools to schools and institutions of higher education as quickly as possible, and to clearly communicate with stakeholders about the ways to access these resources and how these new resources will support students, families, and student aid administrators in submitting and processing the FAFSA form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/fafsa-financial-aid-college-education-faf16cf14fb69a20e373d3ada1b63dca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to&nbsp;<em>The Associated Press<\/em><\/a>, over 17 million students fill out the FAFSA form each year as a first step to access the financial aid needed to help cover the costs of&nbsp;higher&nbsp;education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff continues working to help Georgia students afford higher education and expand access to workforce development programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-expanding-workforce-development-opportunities-in-south-georgia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">delivered<\/a>&nbsp;new resources through the U.S. Department of Commerce\u2019s Economic Development Administration (EDA) for Wiregrass Georgia Technical College to expand their truck driver training program and boost job creation in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In November, Sen. Ossoff also delivered $749,896 through the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to Spelman College as part of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship Launch Incubator for Traction (CBE LIFT) project.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-leading-push-to-reopen-atlanta-job-corps-center-expand-workforce-training-in-georgia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched<\/a>&nbsp;an inquiry with the Department of Labor (DOL) to reopen the Job Corps Atlanta site, which provided housing and tailored professional training to students seeking jobs in Georgia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In May, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-working-across-the-aisle-to-help-georgia-students-access-job-training-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">championed<\/a>&nbsp;efforts in the U.S. Senate to the pass the bipartisan&nbsp;<em>JOBS Act<\/em>&nbsp;to help more students access and afford job training programs. The bill would ensure students across Georgia enrolled in high-quality short-term skills and job training programs have access to Pell Grants to complete their education and workforce development programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/02.12.24-Quill-Final-FAFSA-Letter-v2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to read the full letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"># # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form opened three months late Washington, D.C.&nbsp;\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressing the Biden Administration to address financial aid delays for Georgia students. Sen. Ossoff joined a group of colleagues&nbsp;calling on the Department of Education&nbsp;to urgently address operational issues&nbsp;with the new Free Application for Federal [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22008","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/22008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/22008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22010,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/22008\/revisions\/22010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}